The present disclosure relates to a damper mechanism of a turning member such as a cover, a relay conveying unit including the damper mechanism, and an image forming apparatus.
In a general image forming apparatus, an in-body sheet ejection space is provided between an upper image reading part and a lower image forming part. A sheet on which an image has been formed at the image forming part is ejected to a tray formed on a bottom face in the in-body sheet ejection space. In a case where a post-processing device to carry out a post-processing on the sheet is mounted to the image forming apparatus provided with such an in-body sheet ejection space, the post-processing device is attached to the outside of the in-body sheet ejection space, and a relay conveying unit provided with a conveying path along which the sheet on which an image is formed is conveyed to the post-processing device is installed in the in-body sheet feeding space.
In order to handle a sheet jam occurred in the conveying path, the relay conveying unit is provided with a front cover which is turnable around a lower end. By turning the front cover downward, the conveying path is thereby opened.
In the cover that is provided to be turnable about the lower end, such as this front cover, there are many cases in which, in order to impart comfortability and a high grade sense to the turning work, a damper mechanism is provided so as not to allow the cover to suddenly open.
As the damper mechanism, there may be a case in which a load supplying unit to apply a load to a turning shaft side end of the cover is provided. As the load supplying unit, an oil damper or a torque limiter is used.